Is He Really President At All?

Jim_Are_Great

The Constitution of the United States, Article II, Section 1 wrote:

Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

He didn't really say that. Facetious Supreme Court challenges to the president's legitimacy are pretty common. To the best of my knowledge, this one's never come up before. The Supreme Court have decided equally important things on less important grounds, so who knows.

I think a second go at it might be the failsafe plan.

Ludo

Jim_Are_Great wrote: »

I think a second go at it might be the failsafe plan.

Yep..do it again...in 4 years time (maybe).

oscarBravo

Ludo wrote: »

Yep..do it again...in 4 years time (maybe).

Or sometime today, in a quiet room with a SCJ and a witness, if it's deemed absolutely necessary. Non-issue, tbh.

Ludo

Good description of what was wrong with the oath here:

http://electoral-vote.com/

Obama Inaugurated Despite Big Screwup

At 1205 (five minutes late), Barack Obama took the oath of office. The five minutes don't actually matter. By law Barack Obama became President at noon, oath or no oath. A similar situation occurred after President Kennedy's assassination, when Lyndon Johnson didn't take the oath until he got to Air Force One at Love Field. But he was President from the moment Kennedy was pronounced dead.

Much worse was that the Chief Justice of the United States, John Roberts, botched the oath as he gave it. Here is the dialog:
Roberts: "Are you prepared to take the oath, senator?"
Obama: "I am"
Roberts: "I Barack Hussein Obama"
Obama: "I Barack"
Roberts: "do Solemnly swear"
Obama: "I Barack Hussein Obama do solemnly swear"
Roberts: "that I will execute the office of President to the United States faithfully [sic]"
Obama: "that I will execute"
Roberts: "the off...faithfully the Pres the office of President of the United States"
Obama: "the office of President of the United States faithfully"
Roberts: "and will to the best of my ability"
Obama: "and will to the best of my ability"
Roberts: "preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of the United States"
Obama: "preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of the United States"
Roberts: "So help you God"
Obama: "So help me God"
Roberts: "Congratulations, Mr. President"

What a mess. Here is the actual oath required by Article II, Sec. 1 of the U.S. Constitution:
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Mistake 1: Obama thought Roberts was going to pause for a response after "I Barack Hussein Obama" and started to repeat that, but Roberts kept going and added "do solemnly swear" while Obama was talking. Obama immediately stopped. When Roberts stopped, he then said "I Barack Hussein Obama" from the beginning.

Mistake 2: Roberts then said: "that I will execute the office of President to the United States faithfully." That's wrong. It has two gross errors in it. First, it is "President of the United States" not "President to the United States" (wrong preposition). Even worse, he put the adverb "faithfully" in the wrong place, at the end of the clause. Not only is in wrong there, but is also grammatically incorrect there. Obama knew his oath a lot better than Roberts and was flustered at that moment. He was probably thinking: "What a moron. He's Chief Justice of the United States and he can't memorize one sentence correctly? How did he ever pass the bar exam? But what do I do now? Do I recite the correct oath and make a fool of him in public? Or do I just repeat what he bungled? Geez, I have to make a decision in under 200 milliseconds. Tell you what, I'll just start and maybe he'll correct himself." So Obama said: "that I will execute..." and then stopped.

Mistake 3: At this point Roberts realized he messed up and tried to recover but he didn't know what to say, so he stuttered all over the place, emitting words from the sentence in a more or less random order, ending with "President of the United States" at least. Obama then recovered and said: "the office of President of the United States faithfully" which got the preposition right ("of," not "to") but put "faithfully" in the wrong place, just as Roberts did. So he chose not to embarrass the Chief Justice--by parroting him rather than reciting the correct oath.

Mistake 4: They both got the "preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of the United States" part OK, but then Roberts said: "So help you God." First, this is not in the constitution, but at this point the oath is actually finished so Obama could add it if he liked to as many Presidents have done, but Roberts said "So help ***you*** God" not "So help me God" as he should have. Obama is supposed to repeat his words, not translate them to first person singular on the fly. If Roberts actually believed his translation theory, he should have started by saying: "You Barack Hussein Obama" not "I Barack Hussein Obama." Roberts should have used "I" both times or maybe (arguably) "you" both times, but not one of each. So the Chief Justice of the United States is not capable of uttering a fairly straightforward sentence without four mistakes? One hopes he is better at his day job.

A video of the oath can be found here.

A few minutes earlier, Joe Biden took the Vice Presidential oath (which is not in the constitution) but it that went off without a hitch, probably because Associate Justice John Paul Stevens got it right. Here is the video.

The rest of the day was full of parades and 10 inaugural balls. The hard part--two wars, an economy in tatters, and a national still bitterly divided--starts today.

Overheal

you're right, lets have a recount. that'll keep our minds off the economy.

tony 2 tone

Was reading that he becomes President at noon, but has to take the oath to exercise his executive duties. According to 20th Amendment to the constitution.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twentieth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

Black Swan

Yes, let's divert everyone's attention from attempting to mitigate the problems associated with one of the greatest economic meltdowns since the Great Depression, as well as resolving two expensive and poorly executed wars, and focus on what's really important... Get into a court battle about a handful words during the oath of office administered by Bush's Chief Justice and the new sworn in president.

I think many of the Republicans are in a state of denial about losing the election, the presidency, more seats in the House, and losing control of the Senate. They need to stop their complaining (like Sarah Palin did in recent interview... what a poor loser she was, unlike a dignified McCain), stop opposing for opposing sake, dust themselves off, learn from this defeat, and transform the leadership, purpose, goals, and objectives, and act not negatively, but positively and proactively towards solving some of the serious problems that face Americans today, starting with the solutions to the economic meltdown. Solutions to the economic problems will win them future elections, not crying over spilled milk.

Jinx N3D

No need to worry about a possibility of President Obama losing his office. Any real, or poorly precieved issues regarding his inauguration could be dealt with in a matter of minutes.

Is He Really President At All?
yes. Yes he is, as a fact, completely the President of the USA.

Jim_Are_Great

I don't think anyone suggested that this should take priority over the issues. I mentioned it only with the intention of discussing it.

Hagar

Didn't Barak Obama oppose the appointment of John Roberts to the position of Chief Justice of the United States?
Payback is a bitch isn't it?

Black Swan

Hagar wrote: »

Didn't Barak Obama oppose the appointment of John Roberts Chief to the position of Justice of the United States?

Yes.

Hagar wrote: »

Payback is a bitch isn't it?

Incompetence is worse!

Hagar

I don't think he was incompetent, perhaps he ruined BO's moment of glory on purpose.

Black Swan

Hagar wrote: »

I don't think he was incompetent, perhaps he ruined BO's moment of glory on purpose.

Well, you may be correct in your assumption, that the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court is in fact an immature man of poor character that plays get-even sandbox politics? Then again, how different is he in competence from Bush (who made him Chief)... Bush... someone who stumbles over simple sentences when addressing the public?

banquo

He just retook the oath, according to Fox.

fox: "then again, there are still loads of people questioning his citizenship!"

Black Swan

banquo wrote: »

fox: "then again, there are still loads of people questioning his citizenship!"

LOL! Maybe someone should tell Fox that Hawaii is part of the United States? Then again, they cannot see it from Alaska.

double post

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LUtNway9x4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LUtNway9x4

Makes you wonder why Obama is bothering his arse trying to bring both sides together in the national interest, when this is pretty much all he's going to get from many in the republican side for the next 4 years.

Austin 3:16

The joys of 24/7 rolling news, they're obliged to make stories out of nothing. To be fair Chris Wallace (from the previous clip) is one of the more temperate voices on Fox, i wouldn't imagine there was any malice on his part unlike the vitriol constantly spouted by o'reily, hannity and co.

Matt Holck

apparently if god helps him

bnt

Jim_Are_Great wrote: »

I think a second go at it might be the failsafe plan.

Bingo!

partyguinness

Wouldnt you know that John Roberts was appointed by George Bush and votes on the Conservative side..

Conspiracy...:D